And the honorable mentions are...

ENTRY: FRITZ ZWICKY ADVANCED X-RAY ASTROPHYSICS FACILITY
NAME:Derek FoxSCHOOL: MIT NEWSPAPER: Honolulu Advertiser
Fritz Zwicky (1898-1974) was one of the greatest modern
astronomers, and a true visionary. He coined the term
"supernova," and was the first to understand that they resulted
from the explosion of massive stars. He advanced (with Walter
Baade) the idea that they might be responsible for the Galaxy's
supply of high-energy cosmic rays, and that they might leave
behind neutron stars as end products. Observationally, he was
personally responsible for the discovery of
dozens of supernovae, where prior to his time only 12 had been
known. He made a systematic study of galaxy clusters, and was
the first person to "weigh" a cluster (Coma) by means of its
galaxy velocity dispersions, thereby discovering the dark matter
whose mass dominates these clusters -- although this finding was
not widely accepted for decades after. Finally, while at Aerojet
Engineering Corp. during WWII the made important contributions to
the design of jet engines. Because of the importance of
supernova, supernova remnant, neutron star, and galaxy cluster
observations to AXAF (not to mention aerospace technology!), and
because of the fundamental nature of Zwicky's contribution in
each case; for his vision and for his versatility, Fritz Zwicky
deserves to have this Great Observatory named after him.

ENTRY: ZWICKY
NAME: BILL CREUTZNEWSPAPER: THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN
I would like to propose that the AXAF be named for the
Swiss-American physicist and astronomer Fritz Zwicky (1898-1974).
Educated in Switzerland, Zwicky came to the United States in 1925
and spent a long and productive career at Caltech. In the 1930s,
he and his colleague Walter Baade were among the first to suggest
that supernovae were exploding stars whose cores collapsed to
form small, ultradense neutron stars, and that supernovae were a
source of cosmic rays.
Zwicky soon turned his talents to the study of galaxy
clusters. He found that the velocities of galaxies within the
Coma cluster were surprisingly high, and that the cluster simply
should have flown apart long ago. Though Zwicky's data were
scanty, subsequent studied of other clusters, notably Virgo,
essentially confirmed his results. Zwicky inferred that there
must be more to galaxies than meets the eye--invisible mass, or
"dark matter," as he called it in a 1933 paper. To learn how much
mass galaxies actually contain, Zwicky proposed searching for
gravitational lensing effects, the multiple images created as
massive objects distort the passing light from objects beyond.
If named for Fritz Zwicky, the AXAF would honor a pioneer in
the centennial year of his birth, a brilliant and original (if
sometimes contentious) thinker whose accomplishment certainly
touch on some aspects of the AXAF's mission. Though the work
appeared some 60 years ago, some of the topics Zwicky explored,
particularly gravitational lensing and the dark matter issue,
still ring current as the AXAF prepares to fly and we approach
2000, a year Zwicky wished to see, report author Macia Bartusiak,
as it would have meant his life had "touched three centuries."
Finally, though it may seem frivolous, the name "Zwicky"
is somehow fun to say. At least I have thought so, assuming my
pronunciation is correct, rhyming "zwick" with "quick." It also
engages and entertains the ear. It is, in a word, memorable, and
memorable words seemed touched by poetry. Presumably, the AXAF
will be before the public's eyes for a long time, likely making
discoveries to rival those of the Hubble Space Telescope. The
name may stimulate people to look into the life and work behind
the name. If the name is "Zwicky," they will find there someone
who produced a prodigious amount of work as he explored multiple
avenues in physics and astronomy, someone who conducted supernova
searches with an eighteen-inch telescope, an aperture available
(albeit at some cost) to today's amateurs, someone fascinating,
competitive, human. Under whatever name it flies, I wish AXAF
well.